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MKT 400 Marketing ResearchLecture 4

Dr. Anjala KrishenDept. of Marketing

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Measurement and Scaling

Measurement means assigning numbers or other symbols to characteristics of objects according to certain pre-specified rules.

One-to-one correspondence between the numbers and the characteristics being measured.

The rules for assigning numbers should be standardized and applied uniformly.

Rules must not change over objects or time.

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Measurement and Scaling

Scaling involves creating a continuum upon which measured objects are located.

Consider an attitude scale from 1 to 100. Each respondent is assigned a number from 1 to 100, with 1 = Extremely Unfavorable, and 100 = Extremely Favorable. Measurement is the actual assignment of a number from 1 to 100 to each respondent. Scaling is the process of placing the respondents on a continuum with respect to their attitude toward department stores.

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Primary Scales of Measurement

Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

People or objects with the same scale value are the same on some attribute.

The values of the scale have no 'numeric' meaning in the way that you usually think about numbers.

People or objects with a higher scale value have more of some attribute.

The intervals between adjacent scale values are indeterminate.

Scale assignment is by the property of "greater than," "equal to," or "less than."

Intervals between adjacent scale values are equal with respect the the attribute being measured.

E.g., the difference between 8 and 9 is the same as the difference between 76 and 77.

There is a rationale zero point for the scale.

Ratios are equivalent, e.g., the ratio of 2 to 1 is the same as the ratio of 8 to 4.

Source: http://web.uccs.edu/lbecker/SPSS/scalemeas.htm

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Examples

Source: http://web.uccs.edu/lbecker/SPSS/scalemeas.htm

Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

Gender.

Ethnicity.

Marital Status.

Movie ratings (0, 1 or 2 thumbs up).

SES.

U.S.D.A. quality of beef ratings (good, choice, prime).

The rank order of anything.

Degrees F.

Most personality measures.

WAIS intelligence score.

Degrees K.

Annual income in dollars.

Lengh or distance in centimeters, inches, miles, etc.

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A Comparison of Scaling Techniques

Comparative scales involve the direct comparison of stimulus objects. Comparative scale data must be interpreted in relative terms and have only ordinal or rank order properties.

  In noncomparative scales, each object is

scaled independently of the others in the stimulus set. The resulting data are generally assumed to be interval or ratio scaled.

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Comparative Scaling TechniquesPaired Comparison Scaling

A respondent is presented with two objects and asked to select one according to some criterion.

The data obtained are ordinal in nature.

Paired comparison scaling is the most widely-used comparative scaling technique.

With n brands, [n(n - 1) /2] paired comparisons are required.

Under the assumption of transitivity, it is possible to convert paired comparison data to a rank order.

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Obtaining Shampoo Preferences Using Paired Comparisons

Fig. 8.3

Instructions: We are going to present you with ten pairs of shampoo brands. For each pair, please indicate which one of the two brands of shampoo you would prefer for personal use. Recording Form:

Jhirmack Finesse Vidal Sassoon

Head & Shoulders

Pert

Jhirmack 0 0 1 0 Finesse 1a 0 1 0 Vidal Sassoon 1 1 1 1 Head & Shoulders 0 0 0 0 Pert 1 1 0 1 Number of Times Preferredb

3 2 0 4 1

aA 1 in a particular box means that the brand in that column was preferred over the brand in the corresponding row. A 0 means that the row brand was preferred over the column brand. bThe number of times a brand was preferred is obtained by summing the 1s in each column.

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Paired Comparison Selling

The most common method of taste testing is paired comparison. The consumer is asked to sample two different products and select the one with the most appealing taste. The test is done in private and a minimum of 1,000 responses is considered an adequate sample. A blind taste test for a soft drink, where imagery, self-perception and brand reputation are very important factors in the consumer’s purchasing decision, may not be a good indicator of performance in the marketplace. The introduction of New Coke illustrates this point. New Coke was heavily favored in blind paired comparison taste tests, but its introduction was less than successful, because image plays a major role in the purchase of Coke.

A paired comparison taste test

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Comparative Scaling TechniquesRank Order Scaling

Respondents are presented with several objects simultaneously and asked to order or rank them according to some criterion.

It is possible that the respondent may dislike the brand ranked 1 in an absolute sense.

Furthermore, rank order scaling also results in ordinal data.

Only (n - 1) scaling decisions need be made in rank order scaling.

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Preference for Toothpaste Brands Using Rank Order Scaling

Fig. 8.4

Instructions: Rank the various brands of toothpaste in order of preference. Begin by picking out the one brand that you like most and assign it a number 1. Then find the second most preferred brand and assign it a number 2. Continue this procedure until you have ranked all the brands of toothpaste in order of preference. The least preferred brand should be assigned a rank of 10.

No two brands should receive the same rank number.

The criterion of preference is entirely up to you. There is no right or wrong answer. Just try to be consistent.

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Preference for Toothpaste Brands Using Rank Order Scaling

Brand Rank Order

1. Crest _________

2. Colgate _________

3. Aim _________

4. Gleem _________

5. Sensodyne _________6. Ultra Brite _________

7. Close Up _________

8. Pepsodent _________

9. Plus White _________

10. Stripe _________

Fig. 8.4 cont.

Form

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Comparative Scaling TechniquesConstant Sum Scaling

Respondents allocate a constant sum of units, such as 100 points to attributes of a product to reflect their importance.

If an attribute is unimportant, the respondent assigns it zero points.

If an attribute is twice as important as some other attribute, it receives twice as many points.

The sum of all the points is 100. Hence, the name of the scale.

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Importance of Bathing Soap AttributesUsing a Constant Sum Scale

Instructions

On the next slide, there are eight attributes of bathing soaps. Please allocate 100 points among the attributes so that your allocation reflects the relative importance you attach to each attribute. The more points an attribute receives, the more important the attribute is. If an attribute is not at all important, assign it zero points. If an attribute is twice as important as some other attribute, it should receive twice as many points.

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Form Average Responses of Three Segments Attribute Segment I Segment II Segment III1. Mildness2. Lather 3. Shrinkage 4. Price 5. Fragrance 6. Packaging 7. Moisturizing 8. Cleaning Power

Sum

8 2 4 2 4 17 3 9 7

53 17 9 9 0 19 7 5 9 5 3 20

13 60 15 100 100 100

Importance of Bathing Soap AttributesUsing a Constant Sum Scale

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Noncomparative Scaling Techniques

Respondents evaluate only one object at a time, and for this reason non-comparative scales are often referred to as monadic scales.

Non-comparative techniques consist of continuous and itemized rating scales.

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Continuous Rating Scale

Respondents rate the objects by placing a mark at the appropriate position

on a line that runs from one extreme of the criterion variable to the other.

The form of the continuous scale may vary considerably. How would you rate Sears as a department store?Version 1Probably the worst - - - - - - -I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Probably the best Version 2Probably the worst - - - - - - -I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --Probably the best0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Version 3

Very bad Neither good Very good nor bad

Probably the worst - - - - - - -I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---Probably the best0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

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Itemized Rating Scales

The respondents are provided with a scale that has a number or brief description associated with each category.

The categories are ordered in terms of scale position, and the respondents are required to select the specified category that best describes the object being rated.

The commonly used itemized rating scales are the Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales.

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Likert ScaleThe Likert scale requires the respondents to indicate a degree of

agreement or

disagreement with each of a series of statements about the stimulus objects.

 Strongly Disagree Neither Agree Strongly disagree agree nor agree

disagree 1. Sears sells high quality merchandise. 1 2X 3 4 5 2. Sears has poor in-store service. 1 2X 3 4 5 3. I like to shop at Sears. 1 2 3X 4 5 

The analysis can be conducted on an item-by-item basis (profile analysis), or a total (summated) score can be calculated.

When arriving at a total score, the categories assigned to the negative statements by the respondents should be scored by reversing the scale.

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Semantic Differential ScaleThe semantic differential is a seven-point rating scale with

end

points associated with bipolar labels that have semantic meaning.

SEARS IS:

Powerful --:--:--:--:-X-:--:--: Weak

Unreliable --:--:--:--:--:-X-:--: Reliable

Modern --:--:--:--:--:--:-X-: Old-fashioned

The negative adjective or phrase sometimes appears at the left side of the scale and sometimes at the right.

This controls the tendency of some respondents, particularly those with very positive or very negative attitudes, to mark the right- or left-hand sides without reading the labels.

Individual items on a semantic differential scale may be scored on either a -3 to +3 or a 1 to 7 scale.

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Stapel Scale When thinking about Data Mining Technologies, Inc. (DMT), do

you believe that the word "innovative" aptly describes or poorly describes the company? On a scale of +5 to -5 with +5 being "very good description of DMT" and -5 being "poor description of DMT," how do you rank DMT according to the word "innovative"?

(+5) Describes very well (+4) (+3) (+2) (+1) Innovative (-1) (-2) (-3) (-4) (-5) Poorly Describes

The data obtained by using a Stapel scale can be analyzed in the same way as semantic differential data.